


A Sailor's Mouth, A Serpent's Tongue

by Uptown



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Merpeople, Comedy, Eren Is a Little Shit, Levi/Eren Yeager-centric, M/M, Mermaid Eren Jaeger, Mermaid Eren Yeager, POV Third Person, Rated for Levi's Language, Sexual Content, Sexual Tension, Slow Build, Slow Burn, Violence, mermaid au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-06
Updated: 2017-05-09
Packaged: 2018-09-22 12:56:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 15,369
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9608492
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Uptown/pseuds/Uptown
Summary: Captain Levi runs a tight ship and leads a mercenary lifestyle. When a job casts him out to sea to do the impossible, he nets the biggest catch of his career that changes his life forever. Levi's moral compass is tested as he is forced to face the consequences of breaking the golden rule: Never get emotionally attached to your cargo. (Mermaid AU. Rated M for language/adult themes.)





	1. Prologue

On that night, most of them slept. Whether inside caves, under rocks, or amidst forests, they all had places where they felt safe. Safety was relative, of course, but “safe enough” was all one could hope for. It wasn’t easy to hide in the daylight, but at least you had a chance of seeing something coming before anything saw you. At night you couldn’t see a thing, but at least you could hide and have a decent chance of being able to sleep and believe you wouldn’t wake up in something’s mouth.

That night, most of them slept, but not all.

A young boy lie awake, staring up into the dark, open expanse above him. It was one of those nights where he knew sleep wasn’t coming. Unlike many of the others, relative safety wasn’t enough—not since his only safety had been taken from him.

“Can’t sleep?”

He sat up quickly at the touch on his shoulder. His friend watched him, concerned. She was like a sister to him, but he still didn’t appreciate the company. He knew what she was thinking.

“No,” he answered. “You don’t have to keep asking. You know I can’t sleep, so stop worrying about it and sleep for the both of us or something.” He allowed himself to relax slightly but shrugged her hand away, lying back down where she’d found him.

She didn’t argue; it was true that she wasn’t surprised to find him wide awake, but that didn’t stop her from wishing she could make sleep come more easily for him. She knew what he was thinking about, too, but somehow that never seemed to provide her with any way of making anything better. She felt useless just watching him and not saying nor doing anything about it.

“Do you think they’re all the same?”

Questions like this had been asked a thousand times. It wasn’t anything novel, but somehow it was a question that continued to make its rounds between everyone who was anyone. Answers never came, however; how could they when no one lived to deliver them?

“How should I know?” He turned his head away to hide the grimace on his face. “All I know is that so far they haven’t done anything to prove otherwise, and that’s proof enough for me.”

“You don’t ever wonder what they’re _really_ like? You’ve never wondered what their reasons are for—”

“Like hell I have!” His outburst caused her to recoil slightly and he looked away again, ashamed. “I don’t care what they’re like. They destroy everything in their path. They kill everything they touch. They’re monsters, and this world would be better off if they were all dead.”

There wasn’t anything she could say. She couldn’t argue with him when she had no proof that he was wrong. The truth was that he was probably right; nothing good ever came of their existence.

This world would be better off if humans just disappeared.


	2. The Catch of a Lifetime

“Slow her down!  This is as good a spot as any!”

There was a low rumble as the boat slowed to a stop on the gently rolling waves of the sea below.  Now bobbing in near-silence in the middle of nowhere, the crew had an opportunity to finally enjoy the quiet sloshing of the water against the sides of the ship and the occasional call of a seagull overhead.

Out on the bow, the captain leaned against the rails and let out an irritated huff.  They had been sailing across this god-forsaken ocean for what felt like weeks, and so far they had nothing to show for it.  Every place they had stopped had sent them moving on to the next one just as empty-handed as when they had arrived.  Sure, they had hauled up a hell of a lot of fish, but they weren’t looking for just any old fish.

“Yoo-hoo, earth to Levi?”

Captain Levi Ackerman glowered over his shoulder at his field officer, who appeared to have been trying to get his attention for quite some time.  “What, Hanji?” he drawled, turning to face her with his arms folded.

They gestured out to the empty ocean.  “Looks like a good spot, huh?” they asked brightly as they adjusted their glasses on their nose, causing the sun to gleam off of them.

Levi squinted and simply raised an eyebrow.  “It looks like a fuckton of water.  What makes you think this is any better than 20 miles back?  Looks just as bad to me, if not worse.”

Hanji grinned back at him.  “Gut instinct!  You know my hunches never fail.  Trust me, my fishy senses are tingling!”

Levi just rolled his eyes.  “Uh huh.  You definitely didn’t say the exact same thing last time we stopped.  Just go do your thing.”  He strode past them brusquely.  “I’m going up twatch from above.  Can’t stand being around all this bird shit.” 

Making his way lazily up the steps to a higher deck, Levi pushed his way into the bridge, leaving the door ajar to let the distant voices seep in.  He stopped to gaze out one of the large windows, watching as Hanji barked excitedly at the crew, sometimes grabbing things out of their hands if they weren’t moving fast enough for their liking.  He couldn’t figure out how they could still act so excited after all the failures they had had.  Their optimism would be their undoing.

The navigations officer, Mike Zacharius, spun in his chair slowly to peer out the windows, as well.  “What do you reckon our chances are?” he asked dully.  He sounded about as positive as Levi felt.

“Zero.  Zilch.  Nada.  Squat.  If all that water out there was dirt, we’d have the same chances.  We should have just turned back.  They’re not out there.  We’re wasting our time.”

Mike made a grunt in agreement.  The two men watched as the enormous nets on either side of the ship were dropped.  Levi took a seat in his chair and sighed.  This entire mission was completely pointless; he could be back home on the mainland right now drinking tea and relaxing on a sofa in a room that wasn’t constantly swaying under his feet, but instead he was stuck out here looking for something that was so rare it may as well not exist at all.  It was a fruitless endeavor.

Levi had started to doze off in his chair after about an hour when he was jolted awake by Mike’s voice.  “Uh, Captain?  You might want to see this.”

 _This had better be worth it._   Levi stood up and crossed to where Mike sat in front of the sonar.  He was pointing at the screen, where a slightly sporadic beeping was issuing from.  A small blip was moving around the ship.  “The hell is that?” Levi wondered aloud.

Mike shrugged, looking just as confused.  “Just popped up on the radar a second ago.  I can’t tell exactly what it is, of course, but judging from the size I’d say it could be a dolphin, maybe.  It’s fast though, that much I can say.”

Levi opened his mouth to ask how common it was for dolphins to orbit a ship like a vulture circling a carcass when he heard distant shouts from the deck below.  A second later Hanji’s voice sounded from his belt.  “Hey, anybody wanna tell me what’s swimming around down here?  You see anything on your end?”

Levi held his radio up to his mouth.  “Yeah, we see it.  Mike says it’s probably a dolphin.  It’s the size of one, anyway.”

“Dolphin?”  Hanji sounded incredulous.  “I highly doubt a dolphin would act like this, let alone all by itself.  It keeps passing next to us and I can’t get a good look at—HOLY SHIT!”’

Levi winced and held the radio further away from his face.  “The fuck, Four-Eyes?  Don’t do that!  What’s going on out there?”

“Levi, they’re flipping out out there,” Mike pointed out, standing up from his chair to get a better look out the window.  “I think something’s wrong.  Should someone check on them, or…?”

“I’ll go.”  Levi swept out through the door and started his way down.  Out here, the panicked voices were much clearer and he could see members of the crew scurrying every which way.  A few of them dashed in front of him and nearly collided with him as they rushed past.  They were carrying tranquilizer rifles.

“What the _fuck,_ Hanji?”  Levi demanded when he found them amidst the chaos.  They were leaning so far over one of the rails that he worried they might fall.  “Explain all this goddamn racket!  What’s—?”

“WE FOUND ONE!” they screamed hysterically, causing Levi to take a step back.  Hanji whipped past him and screeched across the ship at a group at the opposite railing.  “Get ready, it’s coming around!  DO—NOT—LET—IT—GET—AWAY!”

Levi desperately turned this way and that, struggling to make sense of what was happening.  Hanji scrambled to the other side where a group of men stood ready with tranquilizers, pointing them down into the ocean below.  “Ready!” they hollered as they skidded to a halt and caught the rails for support.  “There it is!  Aim!  Hold it…  _Hold it…_   FIRE!  NOW!”

Levi reached Hanji’s side just in time to see several tranquilizer darts pierce the water’s surface and plummet towards a dark shape swimming just alongside the ship.  The silhouette jerked and darted forward so fast that his eyes almost couldn’t keep up.  In the moment that he saw it, he could see that Hanji had been right about one thing:  that was no dolphin.

“Did it hit?  DID ANYTHING HIT IT?”  Hanji bellowed.  “Portside, get ready with the nets!  It’s cutting across underneath!”

They tore across the ship once more to the other side again, Levi jogging after them.  His heart was pumping hard as his brain slowly began to piece together what was happening.  He refused to believe it if he couldn’t see it.  The chances were so small, so slim—there was no way they had gotten this lucky.  It was borderline impossible.

“There!  FIRE!" 

Three more men shot nets over the side of the ship at Hanji’s command.  Levi gripped the railing and stared down into the dark sea, holding his breath.  The nets descended down just as the dark shape came into view from under the ship, and he was positive that at least one net connected with its target.  The surface of the water erupted in bubbles and violent splashing as the creature below twisted and thrashed.  It started to fade as if sinking.

“No no no no no no no!”  Hanji practically punched the man to her right in the face as they whipped around.  “Drop the hook lines!  Pull that thing up or I will murder this entire crew myself!  DO IT NOW!”

The men at the edge switched out with other members of the crew that hauled the heavy wire lines with them.  In several not-so-fluid motions, the pronged lines were locked, loaded, and sent flying straight down into the water.  Levi watched the lines unwind as they descended deeper and deeper, until…

The wires stopped whipping off their holders as the ends of them undoubtedly connected with something below.  Hanji gave a triumphant howl.  “YES!  Pull it up!  Put your backs into it!”

What seemed like the entire ship’s crew lined up and grabbed hold of the lines in a chain of bodies.  Others gripped the cranks at each line’s holder, tugging it around and around to rewind the wires.  Levi pushed his way into the crowd at one of the lines, grabbed hold of the wire, and tugged on it with all his might.  Slowly but surely, the wires were dragged up and over the side of the ship as every free hand yanked and pulled on the lines.

“Jesus, this thing is a fighter!” Hanji laughed from the front of one of the lines, their hands slipping on the wet wire as they struggled to do their part in hauling it back onto the deck.  “But it’s not—going—to win—against—me!”

Finally, after several minutes of grunting and gasping and cursing, something broke the water’s surface and rose steadily until they could see the edge of the net peeking over the railing.  Violent thudding noises reverberated in their eardrums as whatever was caught in the net trashed against the ship’s side.  There was a loud THUD as the net and its contents finally rolled over the railing and hit the deck unceremoniously.  The crew let go of the slick wires, rubbing their raw hands and backing away from the net as it continued to jerk on the ground.  Levi fought his way through the crowd until he broke out into the clearing, and he felt his jaw drop at the sight.

A mermaid, tangled in not one but two nets, was writhing on the floor in a cloudy puddle of seawater and blood.  One of the wire grappling hooks was embedded in the back of its bare shoulder, gushing blood all down its body. A mop of very short, brown hair was plastered to its head, weighed down and darkened by water.  Its skin was lightly tanned but looked paler against its dark scales.

Its tail, glistening a dark green pounded the ground as it fought against the ropes and wire.  Levi had always heard that mermaid tales resembled fish or scaly dolphins, but that was not what he was seeing.  Powerful and long, nearly three times the length of the rest of its body, it twisted in serpentine ways a fish never could.  Scaly but eel-like, more like a sea serpent than anything else, it was covered in long fins along its sides and on its gracefully tapered tip.

One of its hands reached around and clawed at the hook that was stuck in its shoulder, and their ears were accosted with a horrific sound.

It screamed, long and haunting.  The voice was young, rich, but guttural, as if choking on something wet in its throat.  Its whole body shook and its tail twisted and jerked wildly, causing the entire crew surrounding it to step back out of harm’s way.  Levi felt a cold shiver travel down his spine as he watched the creature convulse in pain.

“Don’t get close!”  Hanji yelled over the noise.  “The tranquilizers will take effect in a matter of minutes.  Just wait it out.”

The screaming cracked and faltered, and the creature thrashed as its hands grasped at the smooth floor of the deck, webbed fingers clenching into fists.  Its body was beginning to move less and less, each movement appearing to take more and more effort.  The enormous fins at the end of its long tail slapped the ground, then slid across it, and then simply fluttered weakly like a butterfly’s wings.  Its body moved slowly now, squirming feebly against the floor as if trying to swim away.  It was pathetic.

Hanji slowly crept forward.  “That’s it, let those sedatives do their thing.  Not so feisty now, are we?  You just stay there nice and still, and I’ll get this big bad hook outta you, yeah?”  Hanji closed their fingers around the hook’s hilt and, in one fluid motion, twisted and pulled it out, freeing it from the mermaid’s flesh.

Flooded by adrenaline from the pain, the creature snarled and whipped its tail, colliding with the back of Hanji’s legs and knocking them flat on the floor.  The creature rolled away from her onto its side, clutching at the open wound, and looked up into the faces of its captors for the first time.

Large, bright green eyes met Levi’s gray ones with a mixture of fear and rage.  Lying on its side now and more exposed, Levi realized with a small jolt that this was no mermaid—this was a mer _man._   Bare chested and broad-shouldered with a firm waist that tapered into narrow hips that blended into its green scales, this creature was very young but unmistakably male.

“Whoooaaa!”  Hanji scrambled to their feet, seemingly unhurt by their tumble earlier, and stared shamelessly at the young man from the sea.  “He’s gorgeous!  Look at that coloration!  He’s a beauty!”

Levi was looking, all right, but he was having trouble defining the feelings that were whirling around inside him.  The merman’s flashing green eyes were flicking between all the faces that surrounded it, but its eyelids were fluttering with exhaustion.  He could see the slits of gills on the sides of its neck just below the corners of its jawline that were quivering in the open air.  Its chest was heaving with very labored breathing, as drops of saltwater and blood trickled down its body and tail.  Levi could see one of the tranquilizer darts poking out from between its scales near its hip, and Levi thought he could see it shaking.  Was it fear?  Pain?  Chills?

“Hanji,” Levi hissed at them from his place at the edge of the crowd.  “What are we doing?  What do we do with it?”

Hanji snapped out of their funk and found Levi with their wild gaze.  “’Do with it’?” they echoed.  “I mean, I personally would love to just keep it forever and study it.  Do you know how much we could learn from this?  He’s young, healthy, everything you could ever want!  We could figure out so much, and—”

“Weren’t we supposed to take it back and sell it?”

Both Levi and Hanji turned to face Mike.  He had come down from the bridge and now stood at the front of the crowd, watching the merman with an unreadable expression.  “You know how much people would pay for a set of scales like those?  Even if you cast aside the fact that we’d all be filthy rich, we don’t exactly have much of a choice.  Erwin’s orders, weren’t they?”

Levi’s brows furrowed and Hanji swallowed audibly.  Erwin Smith may not be with them now, but as Captain Levi’s boss, he was a man to be feared.  He gave orders to Levi, who then in turn gave those orders to his crew.  Disobey Erwin, and you were in big trouble no matter how important you were.

But Hanji also presented a valid point.  Finding a mermaid, let alone catching one, was almost unheard of, and turning right around and selling it for slaughter to have a piece of it stuck up on some rich man’s wall seemed completely counterintuitive. All anyone knew about merpeople was what you heard on the street and what you decided to believe from unverified journals written by people you didn’t care about.  The potential to learn more about the species was extremely tempting, even to Levi.

“I’m well aware of what Erwin’s orders were, Mike,” Levi finally retorted.  He turned away.  “Get it into the tank.  We’re taking it back.”

There was silence.  “Well, okay,” Hanji spluttered, “but are we taking it back to sell it or—?”

“Don’t make me repeat myself.  Just get it down there.  It’s gonna shrivel up out here.”

The crew started working, many running across the deck to climb down into the ship to prepare one of the tanks while others carefully shuffled closer to the merman.  They cautiously grabbed hold of the nets and hoisted the creature up to carry it.  Levi watched them work in silence, ignoring the prying eyes of both Mike and Hanji.  He didn’t feel like being on either end of a lecture.

The merman was weakly squirming in its binds, green eyes dazed, making the crewmen’s job only slightly more difficult as they hauled it slowly out of sight, descending lower into the heart of the ship.  A watery trail of blood was left on the deck in its wake.  Levi grimaced at the mess.  “Get somebody to clean that up,” he growled, stepping over the puddles carefully.

Mike made to follow.  “Levi, what—?" 

“That’s _Captain_ Levi.”

He swallowed.  “Captain, what are we doing?  What’s the plan?”

Levi stopped and turned to stare his navigator down.  “Regardless, we’re keeping it alive, aren’t we?  If we’re selling it, I doubt any buyers are going to pay that pretty price you mentioned if it’s dead.  It’s ‘coloration’ might get dull or whatever the fuck.”

It looked like Mike wasn’t sure how to respond, so Hanji piped up instead.  “Yes, that’s true, but you know everyone’s going to want a decision eventually, Levi.  Er, _Captain_ Levi.”

“Who says I haven’t decided?”

“Um, the fact that you won’t tell anyone?”

They stopped at the glare Levi threw them over his shoulder.  He was tired of all the questions.  “Drop it, Hanji.  We’ll talk later when I feel like it.”

 

He watched from the bridge as several crew members scrubbed at the deck below with mops, washing away the blood until there was no evidence of their catch left.  Now that they had found what many would call the greatest trophy of any seafarer’s dreams, they could make the journey back to the mainland and reap the rewards they had all been waiting for.  It would be a long trip, but that meant plenty of time to decide how best to proceed.

The captain swallowed the last sip of his coffee and shivered.  He could still hear the haunting screams ringing in his ears.


	3. Challenge Accepted

“I don’t know what to!”

Hanji’s forehead hit the table with a loud THUD, causing Levi’s teacup to rattle.  They had been ranting at him for the past twenty minutes and didn’t seem to care that Levi had no advice whatsoever.

“I’ve tried everything!  I’ve dumped everything I can think of into that tank and he won’t eat a damn thing!  Not one bite!  I just don’t get it!”

Levi picked up his mug to save it from harm as Hanji moaned into their arms.  “Like I said, I don’t know what you expect me to do about it.  That thing is _your_ job, not mine. You keep it alive with your ‘expertise’ and I keep this ship running with mine.”

Another groan was all he got in response.  “It’s like he’s trying to starve himself or something,” they finally said, peering up at him from behind their glasses.  “It goes against basic survival instincts.  I’ve offered him every kind of fish and plant from this region and then some, but he won’t touch a single thing.  It’s been three days.”  They chewed their lip anxiously.  “If he doesn’t eat something soon, he’s going to start going downhill fast.  If you want him healthy—if you want him _alive,_ Levi—then he needs to _eat._ ”

“What do you want, Hanji?”  Levi set his mug down pointedly, staring his field officer down.  “What do you want me to do, go down there and tell it to eat its peas and suck it up?  This is not my problem.”

“If you want this voyage to have been for something, then it _is_ your problem!”  Hanji finally sat up and leaned uncomfortably far across the table into Levi’s very wide personal space bubble.  “I’d appreciate it if you showed a little concern for what I’m trying to do here!  What do you think would happen if after all the work everyone’s put in, that ‘thing’ down there just flips over and dies?  I don’t think your crew would be too pleased.”

A vein above Levi’s eye twitched.  Finally, through gritted teeth, “You have yet to tell me what you actually want me to do about it.”

The corners of Hanji’s mouth twisted into a satisfied smirk.  “I have no fuckin’ idea what you’re going to do about it.”

“Then what—?”

“I’ll take you down there.”  They stood up and bounced towards the door, all signs of their exhaustion gone.  Now they just looked smug.  “You haven’t seen him out of the nets yet, have you?  He’s _goooorgeous_.”

Levi almost didn’t get up; he considered just staying in his chair and showcasing his defiance like a child, but he found himself scooting his chair back and leaving his mug on the table to follow Hanji out of the dining hall.  He maintained a stubbornly unenthusiastic frown as he began winding through the corridors, descending stairs and ladders until they were in the deepest bowels of the ship.  The air was warm and a bit stuffy; he shrugged off his jacket and draped it over his arm as he walked.

“Through here.”  Hanji grunted as they twisted open the airlock on the door with some difficulty.  They pulled it open and stepped through into the dark room beyond, leaving Levi with little choice but to follow.  He had barely crossed the threshold and started to wonder how Hanji expected him to see a damn thing in this darkness when they flipped a switched somewhere along the wall.  Soft, blue lights flickered to life all around the room and illuminated an enormous tank that was anchored to the floor, sealed at the top and butted up against a large metal stepladder that led up one side to the lid.

Curled at the bottom of the tank was the merman.  It had balled itself up so tightly that all Levi could see was part of its head, its back, and its scaly hips before its tail was tucked away and out of sight against its body.  It was lying on its side on the bottom of the tank with its arms wrapped around its bent tail as if hugging its knees.  As Levi followed Hanji closer, he could make out each wave in its rounded spine.  Levi’s first thought was that it looked like a sulking teenager.

“Is it asleep?” Levi asked, his voice slightly lower than normal.

“Oh no,” Hanji shook their head knowingly.  “He’s just ignoring us.  He used to get spooked every time we turned on the lights and he’d try and attack us through the walls, but ever since yesterday he’s started pretending we’re not here.”

“Who else has been down here?  Besides you, obviously.”

“Not many.  Pretty much just me and my team, and all they do is put the food in.”

Levi looked back at the balled up creature.  He could still easily make out the angry red wound on one of its shoulders.  “That gash still looks pretty bad,” he pointed out evenly, “but I guess there’s not much you can do about it at this point?”

Hanji frowned.  “Nope, especially not when he tries to rip us apart every time we get close.  I tried to get to it when we first brought him down here before the sedatives wore off, but his body filtered them out like they were nothing.  By the time he was safely in the tank, he was back to trying to break the thing apart.”

“It certainly doesn’t seem that feisty right now.”  Levi furrowed his brow at the merman, expecting it to so something—anything—but it continued to lie at the bottom of its tank, completely motionless apart from the ends of its fins rippling slightly in the water.

“Well, no,” Hanji answered tersely, “but I’ve got my theories.  Honestly he’s probably just trying to preserve energy.  He hasn’t eaten anything in three days, and after all the fuss he kicked up he must be pretty exhausted.”  They stared at the creature with worry.  “He’s running on fumes, the poor thing.”

“Why isn’t there any food in the tank then?”  Levi gestured to the tank which, apart from the merman itself, was completely empty.  “It’s not gonna eat if there’s nothing in there.”

“There _was_ food, but we have to keep cleaning it out or it starts mucking up the water.  I just wish he would eat!”  Hanji stepped up to the side of the tank and stared solemnly at the huddled form within.  “Why won’t you eat?”

Levi joined Hanji at the tank wall.  “Put food back in,” he said.  “I want to see what it does.”

“He doesn’t do anything.  That’s the point.”

“Do it anyway.”

Hanji grumbled something about somebody never listening to her as they stomped away from him to one of the giant coolers on one side of the room.  They returned to Levi holding two large fish in one hand by their tails, glaring at him sourly.  “Here is the _food_.”  They began climbing the ladder on one side towards the top.  “I’m now going to put the _food_ in the _tank_.”

Levi sighed.  “Hanji…”

“Now observe!”  They cranked the lid back to leave a space, their voice dripping in satire.  “I am now going to _drop_ the food—”

“Hanji.”

“—into the tank, and he’s _not_ going to eat!”

“Hanji, will you cut it out?”

They dropped the fish into the water and resealed the top.  Levi watched the fish float down towards the floor, and switched his attention to the merman.  It didn’t move an inch.

“See?”  Hanji hopped down from the ladder and folded their arms.  “Nothing.  Each and every time, nothing.  It’s driving me nuts!”

It was Levi’s turn to fold his arms as he contemplated the creature before him.  How were you supposed to convince a creature of unknown intelligence to feed itself when there was a good chance it would read everything you said or did as something dangerous?

You yell at it, of course.

“Hey!”  Levi’s hand thumped against the glass as he leaned on it to further project his voice through the wall.

“Levi—!”

“You want to starve to death?  Be my guest.  But if you want to live to see anything outside this box, eat the fucking fish!”

There was a resounding BANG as a powerful green tail unfurled and hit the tank wall right in front of Levi’s face.  He lurched back and his heart jumped up into his throat.  The merman’s tail slowly returned to its previous position as if it hadn’t nearly broken Levi’s nose, and Levi’s mouth hung open slightly in offended shock.

“Jesus, that scared the hell out of me!  You okay?” Hanji looked just as surprised as he was.

Levi let out a steadying breath.  “Wow,” he finally said, swallowing his pounding heart back into its place.  “You’ve got a pretty shitty attitude.”

Suddenly it was moving again.  With a flick of its fins, the merman rolled over in the water and slowly twisted upright to face its jailers.  Its green eyes were not just full of hatred anymore.  There was a defiance now that had replaced the fear that had been there the first time their eyes met.  Whether it understood anything Levi had said was unclear, but the challenge in its face was very much human.

“You think you’re winning?” Levi retorted, refusing to show how unsettled he felt.  “You can be a brat as long as you like, but you’re not going to feel much like a winner when you start dying, smartass.”

The merman turned his head to the side and reached out with a webbed hand to snatch one of the floating fish.  It beat its tail and drifted right up to the tank wall directly in front of Levi, staring at him directly eye to eye.  It took the fish in both hands, and lifted it between both their faces as if going to bite into it.

But Levi felt his own eyes widen when the creature dug in its claws and ripped the fish in half.  Blood and entrails immediately clouded the water between them, slowly twisting and diffusing throughout the tank.  He could make out the creature’s face through it all, and he saw it baring its fangs at him in a snarl right before ripping a chunk of fish off with its teeth and promptly spitting it out in his face.

This was not some fear reaction or even a temper tantrum.  This was a threat.

_Make me._

Levi could imagine the words so clearly in his mind that it scared him.  Any doubts he’d had about the intelligence of this creature—this _monster_ —were gone.  That display could not have been any clearer if it had shouted it at him in perfect speech.  It seemed it would rather die than accept anyone’s charity.  This wasn’t about survival instincts.  This was about pride.

“All right, then.”  Levi put his nose right up to the glass as he returned the merman’s stare.  “Challenge accepted.  And also…”  He lifted a hand and tucked away all his fingers except one.  “Fuck you, too.”


	4. Take It or Leave It

On the fifth day, Levi climbed down into the heart of the ship fully expecting to wage a fierce battle of wills.  He had spent far too much of his time and energy to allow this trip to be for nothing, and he was prepared to fight for it.  And if this thing wanted a fight, he’d give it one.

When he flicked the lights on and approached the tank, he didn’t bother stepping quietly or keeping his voice low.  He stopped a few feet from the glass, squared his stance, and crossed his arms.  “Oi,” he barked.  “You ready to be smart yet or are you still going to starve?”

The beast inside the tank was curled up at the bottom of its prison again, only this time it had stuffed itself into one of the corners furthest away from him.  Levi would have assumed it was asleep if it hadn’t barely opened its eyes to look at him at the sound of his voice.  The green luster of its scales seemed duller and less reflective, and its skin looked paler and even more ghostly in the blue lights.

Levi bit his bottom lip.  If it didn’t eat something today, he was almost positive they would find it dead by morning.  He turned and marched across the room to the coolers along the wall and pulled out a fish, grimacing at the smell and holding it outstretched as if it were poisonous.  He carried it to the ladder and climbed up to the top of the tank.  He pushed the top cover back to leave a small opening.

“Buck up and feed yourself.  You do eat fish right, or is Hanji crazy and you think that’s cannibalism or something?”

He dropped the fish into the water and watched from above as it drifted down, down all the way to the bottom before bobbing back up.  The creature turned its head slightly against the floor to watch its progress with him, but made no move to retrieve it.  It closed its eyes again and looked away.

Levi gritted his teeth and yanked the cover closed again.  “Jesus Christ, do I have to do everything for you?”  He clambered back down the ladder and marched out of the room, not bothering to turn the lights off.  He wouldn’t be gone long.

“Levi?  What’s wrong?”  Hanji looked up from some papers they were reading as Levi strode past them a level up.  “You look like you’re about to kill someone.  Should I be worried?  ‘Cause I’m a little worried.”

“I’m going in there.”

They stood up and watched him blow past them.  “What?  What do you mean, you’re going in?  In where?”

“That thing’s going to eat if I have to stuff a fish down its throat.  I am _not_ going back home with a dead mermaid, and I’ll be damned if I don’t exhaust every single fucking option before we get to that point.”

“You can’t go in there!”  Levi whipped around when Hanji’s hand gripped his arm to stop him.  “Even with the protective wetsuits, he could kill you in seconds!  He’ll rip you apart, Levi.  You want that fish from the other day to be you?”

The captain ripped his arm from their grasp and kept walking.  “I’m not going to die.  That thing’s exhausted and starving.  Maybe it could have torn me to shreds before, but I highly doubt that’s the case as of now.”

“That’s too big a risk!”

“I’ll decide what risk is too big.  Now if it makes you feel better, go get me a rebreather.  I’d like to change.”

Levi left Hanji in shock as he went into the other room and shut the door behind him.  Now alone in the large locker rooms where the thick, protective wetsuits were kept, he stripped down and tugged his own personal suit on after a bit of a struggle.  The form-fitting suits were tough to put on normally, but trying to get them on in a rush proved nearly impossible.  When he emerged, Hanji was there waiting for him, a rebreather in one hand.

“You could have gone down to wait for me with your precious specimen if you wanted to watch that badly,” he griped.  He began retracing his steps, allowing Hanji to job alongside him on the way down.

They let out an irritated huff as they tailed him.  “I figured I’d use the time walking with you to try and convince you that this is a stupid idea.”

“Knock yourself out.  I’ve made up my mind.”

And sure enough, all of Hanji’s warnings fell on deaf ears.  They reasoned and rationalized at him all the way back down to the tank, but they got nothing in response.  The two of them stood facing the tank once again, and the merman hadn’t even bothered opening his eyes this time.

Levi wordlessly grabbed the rebreather from Hanji’s hands and gripped the handrails of the ladder, hoisting himself up.  “Now stay down here and don’t get in my way.  If the worst happens and it turns out this thing’s been playing dead and shreds me anyway, have fun telling the others that I’ve been filleted by a fish.”

Hanji watched him ascend, conflicted.  “You’re a real asshole, you know that?”

“It’s part of my charming personality.”

Cranking the tank cover back and leaving a much larger opening this time, Levi swung his legs over the edge and slowly lowered himself into the water.  Glancing down, he saw the merman’s eyes had opened, and it was watching him from below now.  It hadn’t moved from its spot, but it was clearly sizing him up.  Trying to ignore his racing heartbeat, Levi took a deep breath, fastened his lips around the rebreather, and let go.

He walked his hands along the glass to flip himself upside down so he could kick off the wall and swim downwards.  He hugged the wall farthest from the creature, watching it just as intently as it was watching him.  He could see it bracing its webbed hands against the floor as if preparing to either push away from him or propel itself to attack—he couldn’t tell which.

The fish he had dropped in earlier was still floating around, untouched.  Slowly and cautiously, he swam to it and took hold of it, still keeping one eye on the tank’s other occupant.  Levi faced the creature and, holding the fish outstretched in one hand, slowly swam forward inch by inch.

At first the creature did nothing, but after Levi had covered a couple feet of distance, it bared its teeth and hissed at him, a stream of tiny bubbles escaping from between its fangs.  Levi hesitated; it was a clear warning that needed no explanation.  To heed it for his own safety or ignore it for its own good?

After treading water for several seconds, he saw the creature’s lips relax again and it fell silent again.  After another second, Levi drifted forward again.  The merman’s eyes flashed and it snarled, the sound reaching his ears clearly despite being underwater.  It pushed against the floor and scooted itself backwards, further cornering itself on the tank floor.  Was it too weak to swim?

The captain swam forward yet again, conscious of Hanji watching him from outside but refusing to take his eyes off the other being.  Its eyes were wide now, unsure how to react to Levi’s continued advancement.  The tip of its tail twitched and thrashed briefly, causing Levi to flinch in spite of himself.  He was not anxious to find out what it felt like to have the muscular green tail connect with any part of him.

 _Come on,_ Levi thought as he forced himself to swim forward again.  _You know you can’t keep going like this.  Take the fish and eat it, goddamn it!_

It was as if Levi crossed some invisible line in the water, for as soon as he moved another inch forward, the creature sprang into action.  Beating its tail against the tank wall and pushing off of the floor, it shot straight for him.  Its clawed fingers grabbed his arms and it pushed him hard into the tank wall and Levi coughed into the rebreather as the air was knocked out of him.  He fought against it, and he was able to just keep the beast’s snapping teeth inches from his face.  If it had been in its full health, Levi wondered if he would have been able to match its strength at all.

Squirming and struggling in the creature’s grasp and feeling the tips of its claws digging into him through the suit’s fabric, he managed to bring his knees up between them and kick the creature somewhere in the stomach.  Its grasp loosened, and he pried its hands off and kept hold of its wrists.  He twisted sideways and flipped their positions, slamming the creature into the wall instead.  He kicked the water to counteract the thrashing of its tail underneath.  He spotted the fish floating nearby out of the corner of his eye, and without thinking he let go of one of the merman’s wrists long enough to reach out, grab the fish, and thrust it under the beast’s nose.

The merman’s expression changed to one of incomprehension and it stopped thrashing.  The back of its head thumped lightly against the glass as it cringed away from the fish being shoved in its face, its nose wrinkling slightly.  Its newly freed hand made to swat the fish away, but Levi pushed the fish’s head against the creature’s lips, which twisted in something like a grimace.

 _Eat it,_ Levi screamed in his head.  _Eat the fucking fish._

The merman couldn’t back up anymore without somehow melting through the tank wall, so it was now staring at Levi over the top of the fish with a befuddled expression bordering on umbrage.  Both of their chests heaving from the struggle, the two men stared at each other.  Then the creature did something very small, very simple, that took Levi completely by surprise.

It shook its head.  Moving side to side in a clear gesture of “no”, it glared at him in defiance and made to swat the fish away again.  Levi trapped its arm against the glass with his elbow and pressed the fish to its mouth once more.  _Why not?_   Levi couldn’t figure out why it was fighting him so damn hard on this.  _Why won’t you eat?_

The merman made face as if spitting the fish away from its mouth, causing a large bubble to rise up between them.  It wasn’t struggling against his hold anymore, but it seemed determined to avoid eating the food at all costs.  It pulled its arm out from beneath Levi’s elbow without much difficulty and raised its hand to the fish yet again, but this time it didn’t try to bat it to the side.  It put its palm between its own lips and that of the fish, and instead pushed the fish towards Levi.

Levi blinked, confused.  _I’m not taking it back,_ he thought irritably.  He leaned away from it and attempted to push it back the other way, but the merman shook its head again stubbornly.  It pushed the fish toward Levi again.  It made a gesture as if grasping at its own throat and bared its teeth.  Completely perplexed, Levi shoved the fish back only to have the favor repaid.  Every time Levi tried to give it back, the creature shook its head and returned the gesture, until the two of them found themselves in a childish game of reverse tug-of-war.  What did it expect him to do?

Then, like a light turning on in his brain, it made sense.  When the creature pushed the fish at him once again, this time Levi did not move away.  He stared at the fish, wondering to himself if it he was seriously considering doing this.  Was it really worth it?  Really?

He accepted the fish and, after taking a long gulp of air, opened his mouth to let his rebreather fall from his lips.  It sank slowly down to the bottom of the tank where it clunked harmlessly to the floor.  Then, before he could reconsider, be lifted the fish to his mouth instead and bit into it.  He tore a small piece of it off with his teeth and chewed it.  He wanted to spit it out as soon as he tasted the raw, salty flesh, but he forced himself to keep chewing.

The merman watched him with a slightly surprised expression but made no move to stop him.  Instead it waited as Levi chewed the fish and finally swallowed it, along with the bile that was threatening to escape his throat.  Levi then held the fish—now with a small piece missing—back out to the creature.

Instead of taking it, however, the merman reached out to Levi’s face.  Levi’s instinct was the shrink back and maintain as much distance between his exposed skin and the creature’s claws as possible, but it was too quick.  It took Levi’s face in its hands and started poking him, not roughly, but inquiringly.  Its fingers pressed into his cheeks, along his jaw, then against his neck.  Finally, it thrust its fingers against Levi’s mouth, its claws trying to squirm between his lips.

Levi made the unwise move of instinctually opening his mouth to protest, but as soon as his lips parted the merman’s probing fingers were inside.  Levi coughed as he felt the bizarre sensation of slick fingers exploring the insides of his cheeks, the roof of his mouth, and even his tongue.

He grasped the creature’s arms with his hands and pulled its fingers from his mouth, kicking backwards and trying not to swallow anymore saltwater.  He swam down and retrieved his rebreather, closing his mouth around it and sucking in air in between coughs.  _What the actual fuck?_   His mind whirled as he looked up to where the merman was still floating.  It was watching him with an unreadable expression, its own lips a contemplative line.

Then, just as suddenly as if a dam had burst, it darted out, snatched the fish from where Levi had left it floating, and devoured it.  Claws and sharp teeth tearing into the meat like a truly starving animal, it consumed the fish so fast it was a wonder that it didn’t choke.  Leaving nothing behind but the bones, the merman sucked on each of its fingers and snuck a glance back at Levi, looking sourly abashed.

Captain Levi was unamused.  _Don’t look at me like that, you little shit.  That wasn’t so fucking hard, was it?_


	5. Silence is Underrated

Levi stumbled down the ladder, sopping wet and still coughing.  He flicked his wet hair out of his eyes and tried to focus on just breathing slowly and deeply, relishing the feeling of natural air in his lungs.

Hanji was buzzing around him like an angry wasp, probably screaming something about how much of an absolute fucking idiot he was, but he tuned it out.  There were only a few things on his mind at the moment and he didn’t have any room to spare for Hanji.

“Would you shut your face hole for five seconds?” he demanded hoarsely, coughing again and groaning from how sore his lungs felt.  “Put more fish in there.  One’s not going to cut it after four days of nothing.”  He bent over, his hands on his knees and heaved.  He felt sick.

“Yes, okay, fine, more fish, got it,” Hanji said dismissively.  “But what was all that about?  Why the hell did you just eat a raw fish?  Why is he suddenly eating again?”  They sounded almost hysterical, though Levi honestly couldn’t tell if it was from worry for him or excitement in what they had just witnessed.  It was a fine line sometimes.  “And what was he doing in your mouth?”

Levi choked on the gulp of air he had just managed to take and hacked up more seawater.  “Jesus fu—How should I know?  Look.”  He straightened up slightly but kept a firm hold on the ladder’s handrail to steady himself.  “I don’t think he trusted the food.  That’s why he wasn’t eating.  Once he saw me take a bite and not croak, I guess he figured it was safe.”

Hanji just stared.  “Well, that would certainly explain a lot.”  They cast a look back at the tank, where the merman was now cautiously watching them from the far side, looking expectantly between them.  “But that doesn’t explain why he stuck his—”

Levi ducked his head and shouldered past them.  “Piss off, okay?  I need to go throw up.”  He ignored their pestering and pushed out of the room.  He ran his tongue briefly around the inside of his mouth and suppressed a shudder; he could still taste something wet, salty, and almost sweet there.

The dripping captain dragged himself to the nearest lavatory and stayed there for the next hour, using every trick in the book until he was able to finally rid himself of the raw fish.  He rationalized that he would much rather suffer now by his own choice than pay the price that night from food poisoning.

 

The next day Levi was kept obnoxiously busy with his crew trying (and failing) to do their jobs to his satisfaction and generally avoiding Hanji, who seemed unable to keep their elation about the recent turn of events to themself.  They tailed him at every opportunity and gossiped about their “beautiful merboy in the basement”.  Levi might have been able to put up with it if they didn’t somehow continually bring up the merman’s fingers ending up in his mouth.  So as it was, he was beyond done.

After telling them for the eighth time that he wasn’t interested in discussing the series of events that had led to the oral exploration of the previous day, he found solace by distracting them with the task of cleaning their quarters and reorganizing their entire stock of books, which he knew would keep them occupied at least half the day.  And that was if they didn’t take any coffee breaks.  He sent them on their merry way up to their quarters where they had hoarded all the best books and he took cover as far away as possible, which ended up being down in the very place that his tormentor had been haunting him with.

Levi did his best to talk himself down from the very irrational way he was feeling.  He had no reason to avoid the creature living in the tank—it had absolutely no concept of how potentially awkward its behavior might make a person feel.  It may have its own logic of how “personal space” worked that made perfect sense to it and to no one else, but he’d never know.  So if he walked into this room and acted anything other than normal, he’d be the weird one.  He was not going to be the weird one.

With a flick of Levi’s fingers, the lights illuminated the tank with a bluish glow.  The single occupant was near the top of the tank for once, its head still submerged just below the waterline.  It turned its head to look at Levi when the lights came on, and it warily sank down lower.  Its tail rippled as it drifted further back.

Levi took a steadying breath and ambled to stand a few feet from the tank wall, mulling his thoughts over in his head as he watched the creature watch him.  What was it thinking, if anything?  _Stupid question_ —of course it was thinking about something.  The expression on its face was very human and very clearly wary.  He was feeling pretty wary himself, he had to admit.  Last encounter he’d had with this thing he’d been attacked and… other things.

“You’ve done a good job making this way more complicated than it needed to be, y’know that?” Levi murmured absent-mindedly.  He knew the creature wouldn’t be able to hear him even if it could understand, but he wasn’t aiming to be heard.  He was here to vent and to be alone.  It was like talking to a pet dog or cat:  if it couldn’t understand you, you could say anything you wanted and never worry about a response.

The merman had swum a little closer, watching him intently.  The vibrancy of its scales was returning from its renewed appetite, and its green eyes were bright and awake.

Levi sat down on the hard floor, looking up at the boy floating above him.  “Did you really think we were gonna poison you after all the trouble we went through to get you in there?  That would sort of defeat the purpose.”

To Levi’s surprise, the merman rolled its eyes and seemed to let out a huff, a few large bubbles rising from its nose.  The look it shot back at Levi was bitter, bordering on exasperated.

Curious, Levi raised an eyebrow.  “What?  I’m not wrong, am I?”

“That doesn’t make it funny.”

Levi’s jaw dropped as he watched the merman’s lips move and processed what he heard.  Young, masculine, and slightly muffled through the glass, the words that came from its mouth were perfectly fluent and understandable.  Levi scrambled to his feet, his eyes wide and his mouth still slightly open.

“You can talk?  How…?  Since when—?”

“Is it that hard to believe?”

“Yes, it is!”  Levi felt a mixture of amazement and anger.  His immediate instinct was to find Hanji and slug them for not having told him about this.  That is, if they even knew.  “I’ve never heard anything about your kind speaking at all!”

The creature snorted again, creating more bubbles.  “That’s so strange.  Because we totally make a habit of striking up conversation with humans.  Crazy.”

Levi blinked.  “Was that _sarcasm?”_

“At least you know it when you hear it.”

“But how would you—?  Where would you even learn?”

It tapped a clawed finger to its temple and looked away vaguely.  “Listen to humans scream at each other long enough and you pick things up.”

The captain stared, still gaping; he could hardly believe this was happening.  The silent, albeit temperamental merman was _talking_ to him, and he had no idea how he was supposed to handle it.  He had never felt so unprepared in his life, and he hated being caught off guard.  The merman was still watching him, looking rather cynical and unenthused.

“We’re not stupid,” it spat, seeing the dumbfounded look on Levi’s face.  “Don’t get me wrong: most of us would rather cut out our own tongues than speak your disgusting language.  Others, like me, figure it’s a good skill.”  It drifted lower and put its face right up to the tank wall.  “Especially if it means we can tell you to GO TO HELL!”

Levi took a step back, startled by the strength of the sudden rage in its voice.  He knew he was safe on this side of the wall, but he still found himself feeling uneasy.  He furrowed his brows and snarled back, “Don’t raise your voice at me, brat.   You’re in no position to tell me where to get off.”

Green eyes flashed and claws squealed against glass.  “Oh, I know _exactly_ what you think my position is,” it hissed.  “I’ve heard every word you’ve said since I got here.  You’re the same as all the rest.  You think we’re animals.  You put me on display in this box like some pearl mounted on a ring!”  Its fist banged against the inside of the tank for emphasis, making Levi flinch.  “You think it’s stupid to worry about being poisoned?  Strange to think you’d want me dead so you can skin me, strip me of my scales, rip off my fins, gouge out my eyes and sell them to the highest bidder?  You think I don’t know what you do to creatures like me?  You humans kill everything you touch!  You call me a ‘ _monster’_ , an ‘ _it’_ , a ‘ _thing’,_ but what are you?  You’re a _murderer!”_

Levi’s fist hit the glass next.  Jaw tight and teeth grinding together, he struggled to separate what was running through his head and what he could actually say out loud.  Gray eyes glared straight into the green ones, and when he spoke his voice was sharp.

“Shut your trap, shelf your pride, and listen.  You can complain as much as you want about being stuck in this box, but you’re forgetting how dead you’d be if I hadn’t risked my neck coming in there and shoving a fish down your throat.  You nearly give me a concussion, I give myself food poisoning, and all you can say is ‘go to hell’?”

Uncertainty flickered across the merboy’s face and it shrank away from him.  “You expect me to thank you for taking me away from my home for slaughter?”

“No, I expect you to not be such an ungrateful little shit for saving your life!”

The creature’s eyebrows furrows and it frowned.  “Wait, wait a second.  Food poisoning?  But the fish was safe.  What do you—?”

“Contrary to popular belief, humans don’t make a habit of eating raw fish straight out of the fucking ocean!”

The merman still seemed confused.  “Then why did you eat it?  You swallowed it and everything!  I checked!”

“I ate it because—wait, _that’s_ what that was?”

It blinked.  “What?”

“What do you mean, ‘what’?  You sticking your fingers in my mouth!”

“I couldn’t be sure it wasn’t poisoned otherwise!”  Its tone was slightly defensive, as if this should be the simplest of concepts to grasp.  “What was I supposed to do, _trust you?”_

“You don’t think coming into your tank and risking my life to save yours make me a little trustworthy?”

“But why?”  It was back at the tank wall, inches from Levi’s face.  “I attacked you.  You could have run, but you stayed just make sure this _monster_ didn’t starve.  Why?”

_I don’t know._

Levi took a steadying breath to calm himself.  He was letting himself get too worked up and he wasn’t about to lose this argument.  Never in his life had he imagined ever having to argue with a mermaid in the first place, but if he was going to be in that situation, he wanted to win it.

“You can’t die.”  The captain kept his voice matter-of-fact.  “After all the time we’ve wasted, after all the work we did and the hell we went through, I’m not about to just let you rot and throw all that away.”

The creature, however, did not look impressed.  “I see.  So I’m just worth more alive than dead.”

_That’s not what I meant._

With a lazy beat of its flexible tail, it turned its back and drifted further away.  Levi could still see the slowly-healing wound on its shoulder.  “If that’s supposed to make you sound less like a shallow, money-coddling asshole, I’d say you nailed it.”

_Don’t say that.  I didn’t know._

 Levi bit his lip and scowled, ignoring the twisting feeling in his stomach.  He didn’t mean for his voice to sound so quiet when he spoke.  “I don’t need any sass, got it?  And watch your language.  Do you even know what half the words you’re saying mean?”

The merman looked over its shoulder and snorted.  “I like to think my vocabulary is pretty impressive.  Ask me all the human curses I know sometime.  I dare you.”

Levi managed something like a smirk as he turned to leave.  There wasn’t anything more he could say without digging himself an even deeper hole.  “Maybe I’ll take you up on that.”

The young voice called after him.  “This doesn’t change anything.  If you ever come in here or try to get near me again, I’ll kill you.”


	6. Right or Wrong

Levi said nothing of his verbal encounter with the creature below to anyone.  The captain was struggling to sort out his thoughts and didn’t feel right trying to explain them to anybody at this point.  He had believed he had a basic understanding of their situation before, but he was realizing only now that he understood next to nothing.

He was not, in fact, being paid to transport a very rare and exotic creature to the mainland.  What he was apparently doing was being paid to kidnap a very rare, very exotic, and entirely sentient being from its— _his_ —home and take it to shore where it— _he_ —would more than likely be murdered and sold in pieces to some rich fuckers that wanted trophies they didn’t earn.  Needless to say, he was feeling a little more like a misinformed tool by the minute.

What was he supposed to do?  He had his orders; he hadn’t forgotten.  Erwin was a man he wasn’t too keen to cross.  It occurred to him, however, that it was possible—probable, even—that Erwin himself may not know the true gravity of his request.  Did he know that he had asked Levi to abduct a… what, exactly?  A teenager?  A child?  How old was that thing down there, anyway?  Did it even matter?

No, not really; whether it had lived for two, twenty, or two hundred years, this trafficking job he’d been given just didn’t feel right anymore.  But what choice did he have?  Next to none.  As much as he hated it, he was Erwin’s subordinate.  As captain of this ship he had to lead everyone aboard from the start to the finish of their assignment.  Their assignment was to capture a mermaid, alive or dead, and bring it back.  If he couldn’t do that, he would be considered by many to be a rather deplorable captain.

On principle he didn’t have a single flying fuck to give about what other people thought of him, but when his career hinged upon those opinions, he didn’t have much choice in the matter.  He had expectations—and contract terms—to meet, and there were very few allowances he could exploit in terms of bending those terms.  This was just simple fact.

Levi had been wrestling with all of these conflictions most of the day following his last—well, first—conversation with the merman, and he was beginning to drive himself crazy.  He hated not being able to see the clear, silver lining from point A to point B.  He was an efficient operator.  He hated feeling unsure or feeling like his purpose was unclear.

He was no longer locked up in his quarters, however, for he had succeeded in forcing himself back out into the fading daylight and down into the bowels of the ship.  Instead of wallowing in his own uncertainty, he had decided that he would rather confront the source, suck it up, and stick it out.  Maybe the change in scenery would make it easier to relocate that silver lining.

Unfastening the airlock and hauling the door open, he came face to face with Hanji, who appeared to be just leaving.  “Levi?”  They sounded surprised.  “What’re you doing down here?”

“Just visiting,” the captain said vaguely.  “You?”

“Putting in some more food.  I’m so glad his appetite is back in such full swing!”  They stepped out into the hall beside Levi and looked back into the room they’d emerged from.  “His color is coming back so beautifully.  He’s been pretty active, probably from eating again and stuff.  Very curious, too!  It was so funny,” they chuckled, turning to ramble at Levi excitedly.  “I had the guys cleaning out the tank earlier and he just kept staring at us.  Not in the going-to-rip-your-face-off sort of way like he did to you that one time, but more like he was just watching, listening even.  Have I mentioned how gorgeous his eyes are?  They’re like—”

“Yes, you’ve mentioned it.  A lot.”  He gazed past Hanji into the room beyond, the blue lights still glowing off the water in the distant tank.  He could see the silhouette of the merman drifting somewhere near the top.  “How much do you think they understand?  Y’know, mer… people.”

Hanji blinked.  “Understand in terms of what, language?  There’s no way of knowing for sure without actually studying it properly.  I mean, if we had one in captivity for long enough we could attempt to teach it things like sign language, you know, do a lot of the tests you do with apes, I guess.”

Levi stopped listening after the first few seconds though, because he already had his answer.  The creature had said nothing to Hanji or anyone else.  Unless they were keeping any conversations they’d had with it a secret the same way he was, Levi seemed to be the only person that had been graced its words as of now.  “M’kay, makes sense,” he mumbled, slipping past Hanji over the threshold.  “Keep doing what you were doing.  I’ll be in here.”

“Huh?  Nobody’s in there anymore, you know.  Well, besides him, that is.”

“Good.  I’m going to enjoy being alone, then, so don’t bother me.”

He left Hanji rather confused in the corridor as he grabbed the door and pulled it shut behind him.  He wondered only briefly what Hanji must be thinking right now, watching him disappear into a room alone with nothing but a seemingly mute and hostile mermaid for company.

Nearing the tank, he saw the creature still hovering near the surface, looking down at him with an expression of almost exaggerated disinterest.  “What’s that face for?” Levi asked, tossing the words out like they meant nothing.

He thought it wasn’t even going to respond, but after a few seconds it answered.  “I didn’t think you’d be back so soon.”

“Is it soon?  It’s been a whole day.”

“It seems soon to me.”

Levi’s mouth shrank to a small line.  “Say that with a bit less excitement next time.  It’s like you’re not glad to see me or something.”

The merboy scowled.  “Sorry, did I mess something up in your language?  I’m _not_ glad to see you.  At all.”

Levi sat down on the hard floor once again, staring back up at the being above.  “Can’t help that, sorry.  Even if I dumped you back out into the ocean at this point, could you even find your way back to wherever you were?”

“Of course I could.”  Its tone was offended.  “We’re constantly on the move.  I know this ocean like my own scales.”

Levi continued to look dubious.  “This isn’t a slow ship.  We’ve covered a lot of ground over the past several days.  I’m guessing you didn’t live alone, so someone must have noticed you’re gone by now.”

The merman looked defensive again.  Its enormous tail coiled more tightly underneath it and it made itself look small.  “What makes you say I wasn’t alone?  Even if there were others with me, I’m not telling you.  You might go back later and try and catch them, too.  But even if I wasn’t alone, they would have…”

Suddenly it fell silent.  It was looking in Levi’s direction still, but it seemed to be staring through him now.  It looked like it had been slapped across the face; something had just occurred to it, and it didn’t look good.

“What is it?” Levi asked, confused and intrigued.

Small fangs worried at its bottom lip.  Its eyes drifted down, avoiding his, and its tail curled upwards in front of its torso and it wrapped its arms around it, hugging its imaginary knees again.

“They won’t be there.  Not after this long, anyway.”  Its head turned away, looking off at the empty wall.  “I’m sure they noticed I disappeared after day one.  If they did what’s good for them, they’re already miles away.”

Levi crossed his ankles on the floor and rested his elbows on the insides of his knees.  “So there _were_ others.  You saying they probably bailed after you left?”

“For their sake, I hope so.”  The merboy was slowly sinking lower in the water, still curled up into a scaly ball.  Its tail corkscrewed underneath it to cushion it against the bottom of the tank, where it unfurled and sat there, looking smaller than ever.  “But that means that even if I did get out now, I probably wouldn’t even be able to find them.”

Levi found himself biting his own lip.  “Who were they?”

“What do you care?  If you’re hoping to find them too, keep dreaming.”

“I’m not interested in catching anyone else.  I’m just asking.”

The creature blinked and looked away uncomfortably, and Levi wondered why.  Then, instead of answering his question, the creature retorted with one of its own.  “Who are you supposed to be, anyway?  What’s your place in all this?”

Levi shifted on the floor, a bit uncomfortable.  “Levi,” he said carefully.

“I know that.”  The creature rolled onto one hip on the floor of its tank, tail splaying out around it like a long ribbon.  “I’ve been hearing that name for days.  That’s what the other one calls you.”

“You mean Hanji?”

It nodded.  “But that’s not what I meant.  I mean what you’re doing here, on this ship.  What you do.”

Oh.  _Shit_.  That’s what it meant.  That was exactly what Levi did _not_ want to talk about.  That was a highly incriminating question that he did not wish to answer.  He swallowed.  “It’s my job to make sure everything happens that needs to happen and that everyone does their job.  I’m the captain.”

“Ah.”  Its tone was flat.  “So this was all your idea after all.”

“No, it wasn’t.”  Levi leaned forward and crossed his arms and legs.  “Everybody has a boss, all right?  I had orders from someone else, so I followed them.  For what it’s worth though, I wasn’t the one who shot you in the back with a gun.”

From its tone, this thought wasn’t worth much at all.  “Oh, of course, that makes everything okay, doesn’t it?”  The merman sat back up and wrapped its tail around itself and hunched over.  “You’re not the villain as long as you’re not the one pulling the trigger.”

Levi rubbed his temples.  Why did this thing always want to pick a fight with him?  “Would you stop twisting around everything I say?  I’m trying to make this better, not worse.”

“Well, you can’t.”  It glowered at him with hateful determination.  “You lost your shot at ‘better’ when your people shot me.”  Twisting around, it ran its clawed fingers over the scales on its hip and scrutinized its details.  “You know I lost a few scales because of that—what’s it called—tranquilizer?  Those aren’t fun to grow back.”

Levi shifted his position and looked away from the bare spot on its tail.  “That was Hanji’s jurisdiction.  They thought it was necessary to keep you from killing the crew.  Which, given that you nearly drowned me for trying to save you, was probably a good call.”

The merman shot him an exasperated look.  “Are you ever going to stop bringing that up?”

“Maybe not.  I’m enjoying the fact that it’s an applicable defense for everything.”

Some large bubbles rose to the surface as it snorted.  He saw a glint of white from one of its fangs when the corner of its mouth pulled up into a smirk.  “That’s so cheap.  Be honest:  if you got shot, tied up, and dragged out of your home and saw my face in the crowd, wouldn’t you assume I was bad news, too?”

The truth in its words stung, but the captain also noticed the lack of hostility in its tone.  The question was surprisingly casual, almost good-natured.  It wasn’t aiming to hurt.  “I’ll give you that,” Levi conceded.  “But if I pulled you out of the ocean, dragged you onto my ship, and dropped you into a tank, what would you do to me?  Pull me off my ship, drag me through the ocean, and leave me on a deserted island?”

A laugh reached Levi through the water and glass, light and full of life; it reminded him how young this creature must be.  It rolled onto its stomach on the tank floor and grinned at him, mischief in its green eyes.  “Careful, you’re gonna give me ideas.  I’d make sure to visit you once in a while at least, since you’re nice enough to keep me company… even when I don’t ask for it.”  Its enormous tail curled and waved lazily behind it.

A smirk crossed Levi’s face before he could catch it.  “How sweet.  Don’t hold your breath, though:  I can’t come babysit you every day.  I’m a busy man.”

His smile faltered—he wasn’t lying.  In little more than a day’s time, this creature would no longer be his responsibility.  The mainland was close, and soon he wouldn’t even know where to go if he ever wanted to see the merman again.  It wouldn’t even matter, anyhow.

It would be dead.


	7. A Change in the Tide

When Levi exited his quarters to the crew shouting that they’d spotted land, his stomach plummeted.  A matter of days ago he had wanted nothing more than to hit solid ground, but this morning he found that the gently rolling waves felt much more comforting.  Why, he couldn’t explain.

 _You know why._   He knew he was lying to himself.  The thought of walking into Erwin’s office, handing him a merman, shaking his hand (on second thought, he wouldn’t have done that to begin with), and walking away just didn’t feel right anymore.  It was like he was selling someone a slave, except that the slave was being sent to a slaughterhouse to be cut up into little pieces to be sold to a few more sick fucks.

Well, he certainly knew how to make himself feel better.  _Bravo, Levi.  Good pep talk._

Levi climbed down to the lower deck and hunted down Mike, who was shooing a crewmember away as he made his way back to his post.  “Hey,” Levi barked.  “What’s the status?  How’s this all going down?”

“We should be all docked in less than a half hour,” Mike answered, prepared for the question.  “Maybe this will come as just as much a surprise to you as it did to me, but Erwin’s coming in person.  Wants to see the merchandise himself, he said.”

Levi’s stomach dropped lower.  “Erwin’s coming?  _Here?_   I thought we were keeping hi—it—on board until after I got the green light from him on the transaction.”

“That’s what I thought to, but I guess there’s been a change in plans.  Nothing we can do at this point, is there?  He said he was already there waiting for us.”

 _He didn’t leave me with any choice, the bastard._   It wasn’t that he flat-out disliked Erwin; the thought of seeing the man didn’t fill him with dread or rage.  He and Erwin had a lot of history working together, and their relationship was one that was difficult to describe with words.  It consisted of a lot of veiled sarcasm from Levi and infuriatingly civil monologues from Erwin.  It was complicated.

He trusted Erwin to a certain extent, but some things still made him antsy.  At the moment, this business agreement in particular made him particularly nervous.  Contrary to what he’d once believed, this thing he was selling off was practically human, and his usually-solid moral compass was being strained.  But what could he do?  A deal was a deal, and Erwin wouldn’t care how much of a problem he had with it.

“Guess there’s no helping it,” the captain growled.  “I’ll handle it.”

“I know,” Mike nodded, shrugging.  “You always do.”

Levi strode past and made a beeline down into the bowels of the ship.  Everyone he passed was running to and fro, rushing to make all the preparations coming into port.  None of those preparations were his job, though, so he elbowed past his crew until he was finally deep enough to have the corridors mostly to himself.

When he reached his destination and pushed his way into the room, the lights illuminated the creature at the top of the tank, its head poking out of the water at the surface and staring up through the ceiling.  Its eyes were wide and its tail was thrashing anxiously.

It spotted Levi and darted down to the tank wall closer to him.  “What’s going on up there?  There are so many vibrations!  Why is everyone running?”

Levi swallowed hard.  “We’re docking soon.  We’ve reached the mainland and I just found out that my boss is going to be there.  He’s coming aboard to see you.”

Panic flashed behind its eyes.  “To see _me?_   Your boss—the one that wanted me in the first place?”

“That’s the one.”

“He’s going to kill me.”  Its voice was soft but cracked slightly.  There was no hiding the fear there.  “You’re going to let him kill me.”

“Don’t…”  Levi trailed off, not knowing how to finish.  Don’t what, accuse him of the truth?  “I don’t know what to do!  I took this job months ago, and a deal’s a deal.  I didn’t… How was I supposed to know you were like this?”

There was a long silence.  Levi didn’t meet the creature’s bright eyes with his own.  He didn’t know what he could have possibly done differently, but he still couldn’t shake how powerless and absolutely shitty he felt.

When the merboy spoke, its voice was low and unassuming.  “You couldn’t have.  You did what humans do all the time, so you couldn’t have known.  You had orders.”

Levi looked up incredulously.  “Now you’re telling me I did nothing wrong?”  He didn’t mean to sound so angry.  “Make up your mind!  Am I guilty or was I just a little fucking lamb following orders?  Which is it?”

“I’m saying I don’t blame you, alright?”  It shrank back, its tail thudding against the tank wall as it propelled itself away from him.  “I expected this.  This is what happens to all of us that get caught.”

Levi was only feeling worse by the second.  “Look, I…  I’ll talk to him.  I don’t think anything I could say will change his mind, but… I don’t know.  I can’t always predict how he’ll react, so maybe he’ll surprise me.”

The merman cast him a dubious glance.  “Do you really believe that?”

“I don’t know.  But if it might save your life, don’t try to convince me it’s stupid.  And before you ask,” he snapped, cutting the merman off as it opened its mouth to speak, “I don’t care how much money I won’t get paid if this falls through.  The company paid for this voyage, so all I’d be losing is time, sanity, and some bodily fluids from throwing up that fish.”

The merboy let out a short laugh despite itself, quickly covering its smile with a hand as if ashamed of doing something inappropriate for the mood.  “I guess you’d know best,” it chuckled weakly.

“I would.  It’s my job to make sure things on this ship happen the way _I_ want them to, so let me work.”  He hoped he sounded more confident than he felt.  “Just don’t do anything stupid.”

“Not much I _can_ do, remember?”

It was the captain’s turn to smirk despite himself.  “Right.  How could I forget?”

They looked at each other, their eyes clouded with the same doubts.  Small fangs worried at the merman’s bottom lip.  “Levi—”

The loud cranking of the lock sent the creature darting away, instantly skittish and defensive.  Levi whipped around as the door opened, Hanji leading a familiar tall figure into the room.  Commanding Officer Erwin Smith had come to appraise his prize.

“Levi,” Erwin greeted cordially, his deep voice polite and civil as always.  “I was surprised when you didn’t meet me on the pier.”

It was time to work what little magic he had.  “I knew someone would be there,” he answered.  “I figured I’d wait here, where it mattered.”

The commander waved this off.  “It’s fine, it’s no trouble.  Hanji did mention you’ve been spending quite a bit of time here, so maybe I should have expected it.”

Levi shot Hanji a look that made them duck behind Erwin’s broad back for shelter.  “Did they?” he wondered absently, failing to hide the daggers in his tone or his eyes.

“Yes, indeed.”  Erwin strode forward to stand beside Levi at the tank’s edge, gazing into the water at the creature within.  He whistled quietly.  “You weren’t kidding, Zoe.  This one’s a true gem."

Hanji shifted uncomfortably, staying back a considerable distance.  Levi stepped in before they could respond.  “So who’s buying?” he asked curtly.  “Where’s this thing headed off to?”

Erwin’s eyes didn’t leave the merman.  “So you’ve been keeping it fed?  It’s healthy?”

Levi blinked in confusion as Hanji finally bounded forward.  “Yes, absolutely!  It took a few days, though; when we first brought him on, he refused everything we offered him.  He’s eating now, though, ever since the captain got through to him.”

When this caused Erwin’s gaze to finally break and settle on Levi, the captain wanted to hide.  Right after he punched Hanji in the face, anyways.  “Really?”  Erwin’s voice was light but intrigued.  “Levi always did have a way with people.  What did you do, make a sour face until it felt bad?”  He laughed.

Levi let out a slow breath to keep his expression blank.  “Actually, I shoved a fish down its throat myself.”

Erwin’s eyes widened.  “You went in there?”  He gestured to the tank.  “Never mind; I thought I knew your style, Levi, but that actually sounds even more like you.  You got me.”

“It’s true!” Hanji piped, bouncing on their feet.  “He went right in with nothing more than a wetsuit and a rebreather, and I was worried he was gonna get killed!”

“It attacked you?”  Erwin’s voice was almost casual, but it had an edge to it.  “Were you hurt?”

“I’m fine.”  Levi shot Hanji a warning look and they kept silent.  “Of course it attacked me, but it wasn’t that bad.  It just, uh… tried to drown me a little.”

Hanji incredulously mouthed “a little” before they folded their arms and pursed their lips shut again.  Erwin’s lips twitched, but Levi couldn’t tell if it was in a smile or a frown.  “Sounds like it could have been a lot worse.  You were lucky.”

Levi let out a dismissive noise and crossed his arms.  “Don’t worry about it, all right?  It’s fine.”

“People have been killed by mermaids before, Levi.”  Erwin’s expression was serious.  “And if you asked me, this one looks more than capable of doing some damage if you’re not more careful.”

“Well, I’m not asking you.  What does it matter now, anyway?  It’s in the past.”

When Erwin spoke, it sounded more as if he was talking to himself.  “I’m just concerned that it might be too hostile.”

“Too hostile for what, shooting in the head and skinning alive?  How is it too pissy for slaughter?”  Levi kept his voice flat but felt his stomach lurch unpleasantly at the thought.

“Oh, did no one tell you?”  Erwin finally turned to face Levi properly, eyebrows raised in surprise.  “There’s been a change in clients.  The first buyers backed out, said it was too high-cost for the risks—which I think is ridiculous and completely backwards—but it couldn’t be helped.”

Hanji and Levi blinked at each other; they were just as unaware as he was.  They joined them at the tank wall.  “Wait, so we’re just giving him to someone else now?  That doesn’t change anything, does it?”

“It does.  Our new buyer isn’t interested in selling it on the black market.  We’re transporting it to a high-security aquarium for ‘research and display,’ so I’m told.”

“An aquarium?  So it’s not going to be killed?”

“Apparently not.  Knowing the circumstances isn’t in the terms of the agreement, so I didn’t ask too many questions.  But from the sounds of it, no.”

Levi looked into the tank, where the merman floated, staring.  Levi knew it had heard every word.  The relief coupled with disbelief at its sudden luck showed clearly in its eyes and relaxed lips as it gaped ever so slightly back at him.  Somehow, it was going to live.

The captain jumped slightly when he spotted Erwin watching him.  “So we’re just transporting it to this new place, then?” he asked quickly.  “And after that… then what?”

“After that, we go on our merry way.  End of the deal, end of our responsibility.”

Levi chewed on his bottom lip.  While he may not be leaving the creature to its death necessarily, he was now supposed to just leave it in another tank and still walk away.  That should feel easier, so why didn’t it?

Hanji broke the silence.  “So Erwin—sir—do we know anything about this place at all?  Is his enclosure going to be big enough, will he be alone or will there be other things with him, do they know what to feed him, are they thinking of trying to breed him or—?”

“You’d have to ask them yourself,” Erwin chuckled.  “I know how you feel about your pets.  I’ll put in a good word for you when we make the drop-off.  How’s that sound?”

Hanji’s eyes bugged out of their head.  “You mean they might actually let me be involved?  Oh my god, that would be amazing!  Thank you, Erwin!  Sir!”

Erwin smiled and nodded.  “You’ve had a front seat in taking care of this creature up until now.  I see no reason to stop you going forward.”  He clapped Levi on the shoulder, which Levi tried not to take as a personal attack on his stature.  “I might put in a word about you too, Levi.  You seem interested enough.”

“Me?”  Levi swallowed, nervous for no good reason.  “What would I have to do with anything?”

“Who knows?  That’s for them—and me—to decide.”  He smiled and brushed past him to leave.  “I’ll let the loading team know that we’re ready to go.”

Hanji gave Levi a beaming grin before scampering off after Erwin.  Levi stayed where he was, listening to his own heart pounding in his chest.  That had gone much better than he had expected, but it was not putting him any more at ease. 

Levi was ushered out of the room and back to the deck above, and duties, responsibilities, and preparations suddenly crashed down on him, sending him running to and fro and barking orders again.  He didn’t want to be up here; he wanted to be down below, supervising the isolated creature and making sure nobody fucked anything up.  He cursed every person that called for him, keeping him up here in the wind and sun when he’d rather be in the dark under fluorescent blue lights.

“Easy, easy!  Take it slow!”

Levi looked up and watched, feeling strangely powerless, as the merman emerged from below.  It had been wrapped in a net again and was being hoisted up from the hold by a crane.  The merman’s immense tail was stuffed into the snug space awkwardly, and the look on its face was slack and oddly bleary-eyed.

It was then that Levi spotted the dart sticking out of its tail about a foot down from its hip.  He ground his teeth—of course they would have had to sedate it again in order to move it.  Eyes unfocused and lids heavy, he could still see the creature’s gaze drifting across its surroundings, instincts dulled but still alive.  As it rose higher and began to be swiveled around, its eyes found Levi and stayed there a moment, and one of its hands pawed clumsily at the net that was digging into its body. It made Levi shudder uncomfortably.

The creature floated over him through the air and past him, and Levi couldn’t look away as it went.  He didn’t like not knowing where it was going or when he would ever know… _if_ he ever knew.

_I never even asked if he had a name._

This thought made him more uncomfortable than he was prepared for.  The more he thought about it, the more obvious it was that he was being stupid.  Of course mermaids had names.  He was just unsure if he’d ever have the privilege of knowing what it was.

He felt a hand clap down on his shoulder and whipped around.  Erwin stood smiling pleasantly beside him.  “Why don’t you take a ride with me,” he said easily.  “I want to hear about the voyage.”

“There’s nothing to tell,” Levi griped, refolding his arms across his chest.  “We set out to find a mermaid and we did.  Took a long fucking time, but we found one.”

“Ride with me,” the taller man repeated just as simply.  “I have to head back to the office before we can close the deal to gather up a few things.  Why don’t you come along and we can meet them at the site afterwards?  We can talk on the way.”

Levi didn’t fancy the idea of sitting in a car with anyone for an extended period of time.  But, if he went along, he’d get to see where this new client was putting the merchandise.  It only took him a few seconds to decide that it was well worth an awkward car ride.  “Fine.”

Erwin’s car wasn’t overly elaborate, which Levi was somewhat thankful for.  While the captain could certainly appreciate cleanliness, he always felt slightly out of place in the presence of superfluous luxury.  As a man who spent half of his time at sea, he was used to a certain standard of living; a relatively comfortable but simple one.

“I’ll admit I was surprised,” Erwin said after several minutes of silence.  “I fully expected you to come back empty-handed.  The chances of finding a mermaid are almost unheard of, and catching one is even less likely than that.  But I figured that if anyone could somehow manage it, it would be you.”

Levi just looked out the window.  “I guess I’m supposed to say that I’m glad to inspire so much confidence or something.”

“I’m not short on faith when it comes to you, Levi.  There’s a reason you’re Captain.”

Captain Levi couldn’t help scowling at the word “short”, not caring if it was actually meant to be taken personally or not.  “I get shit done, that’s why.”

Erwin chuckled.  “Prove my point.  I have high hopes for this, you know,” he continued.  “I know I’m probably supposed to stay objective as someone just selling merchandise, but I suppose I can’t help it.  I’m very interested in what they can do with this.  Research and such, you know.”

Levi didn’t answer as his boss parked the car in front of his office building.  It would have been more strange if Erwin hadn’t expressed any interest in the merman, but it still made Levi uneasy.  He only hoped that it wouldn’t lead to anything unhealthy.

Erwin said something about not being away long as he climbed out of the car and shut the door behind him, leaving Levi sitting alone.  He couldn’t focus on the busy street outside—his thoughts were of the green eyes that had last been filled with fear and uncertainty, and the dull weight of guilt sank down upon him once more.  He wanted to see those eyes again, just to make sure they were still open and alive.

That was all.


End file.
